


What I need (what I need)

by withered



Series: In another life [5]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternative Universe - College, College AU, Hope lives to talk shit, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, M/M, Nerds in Love, Peggy thinks this is all hilarious, Rhodey has thoughts about this shit, Rhodey rants, Tony's attracted to many things about James Barnes, Tony's human friends are supportive of him needing to get boned, Ya'll this came out of nowhere, alternative universe - no powers, as usual the winteriron is at the end, here i wrote this instead of editing or sleeping, my god why am i like this, so much swearing, starting from his brain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-01
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-05-17 01:05:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14822310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/withered/pseuds/withered
Summary: "It’s not fair. I didn’t kill puppies in the past life.”“Okay, one, you wouldn’t know that," Tony huffed, "Two, it’s not so much denial as it is the truth.”“That you don’t like James, or that he isn’t currently and constantly undressing you with his eyes? Because then I'll have to call it: You, Tony Stark, are a lying liar who lies."OrIn which Tony knows it's dumb to crush on math genius James Barnes, but he does it anyway.





	What I need (what I need)

 

On paper, Tony Stark was a certifiable genius.

Tony’s had people say for years that if he _really_ wanted to, he could take over the world from his cell-phone. And he was tempted to. Once. But then he passed out from the sleep deprivation, and he just figured it was a sign that it wasn’t meant to be.

But where was he? Ah, that’s right. _Genius_.

That’s what he was.

He created the very first fully functional AI, inspired by his long-passed father-figure, Jarvis.

In the spirit of his AI’s continued growth, Tony had Jarvis studying the internet and the world at large, doing his term papers for him for the past year to put his skills to the test, and he’d yet to fail a single one which ultimately gave Tony more time for the pursuits that really mattered to him, like creating helper-bots or pushing the boundaries of green energy. Things that geniuses would do.

Not mope around on a spiraling denial train that his friends were unsupportively watching him ride all the way to Egypt with chants to the contrary.

 _As if_.

Because Tony Stark is not an idiot.

No matter how his friends were clearly looking at him like he was. Because he wasn’t one. Not at all.

“I never said you were,” Hope trailed innocently, and he’s spent several years beside her in the cradle to know that _she doesn’t know the meaning of the word._ “I’m just saying,” she continued, to prove his own point, “that if a guy like him propositioned _me_ like that, I wouldn’t be over here pouting about it.”

Tony would hardly call it _a_ _preposition_ when James had come to stand beside him an hour earlier in the midst of Tony’s presentation of Jarvis’ cosmos of a coding.

James had only – honest to God – growled his words, low and dangerous as his lips curled hotly over the two-word phrase that would – from this point on – get him to immediately sport a stiffy: “It’s on.”

It was nothing though, really. Tony would know, he was a genius after all, and James – James didn’t _mean it that way._

“Why _are_ you pouting about it anyway?” Rhodey asked, only paying half-an-ear to the conversation, but still managing to sound judgemental all the same, “You’ve been making moon eyes at him since he got here.”

Tony opened his mouth but was immediately halted as Rhodey pointed at him with his pencil, still somehow pouring all his laser focus into calculations for his fluid mechanics project while he berated him, “And no, do not give me soliloquies about how you’re in total denial about it because I can’t deal with your bullshit and this bullshit at the same time. It’s not fair. I didn’t kill puppies in the past life.”

 “Okay, one, you wouldn’t know that," Tony huffed, "Two, it’s not so much denial as it is the truth.”

“That you don’t like James, or that he isn’t currently and constantly undressing you with his eyes because then I'll have to call it: You, Tony Stark, are a lying liar who lies,” Peggy remarked, prim and mischevious at once.

“Please,” Tony huffed again, ignoring the heat burning at his cheeks when his brain did the dumbass things that brains did and did the thing that it shouldn’t do and _direct his unworthy eyes towards the thing that they shouldn’t look directly at because –_

There, right across from where they were all sitting, four tables away, sat tall, dark, buff and blue eyed.

James Buchannan Barnes was goddamn perfection in living, breathing color.

He wasn’t any kind of Adonis in the traditional sense, but the man had a body for worshipping. His lightly tanned form, muscled, taut and enticingly defined by the Henleys he loved to wear with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and the single button at the top undone to expose that beautiful throat, were crafted lovingly by angels. So lovingly, in fact, that those same angels couldn’t even leave him when their work was done, _oh no_ , they lingered in the air around him – playing harps and shooting Cupid’s arrows at everyone that breathed in his direction.

And worse, goddamn worse was that it wasn’t just in the looks department.

 _Oh no,_ if anyone shot puppies in the past life, it was Tony.

Meatheads with sinful bodies weren’t new to him. If they were willing, it’d be a very comfortable arrangement of wham-bam-thanks-for-that. After all, he was extremely high strung, and who didn’t like a little roll around the sheets to unwind after sciencing the future to their current reality?

Alas, James Buchannan Barnes was a genius too.

His math was brutal, precise and so ruthlessly efficient, Tony could admit that before even meeting him face-to-face, Tony might’ve had a hard-on over it.

That was just over the math.

And now, it was over the man’s goddamn _everything,_ and that was a damn problem because the first rule of the bang-and-ditch was never to like the people you screwed, or you would be, and not in a fun way.

(Learned that lesson thoroughly with Tiberius Stone, thank you very much.)

In knowing that, and genius as he was, Tony _should_ have known better than to allow himself to drift into the gravitation field that was James Buchannan Barnes but – Jesus Christ in a top hat – did he just lick his lips? _Holy fuck._

God, it was hot in here, wasn’t it? Did someone bust up the AC in the library again? Did Clint make his nest in the vent over their table because Tony knows he’s got a thing for Natasha, but she’s not sitting with them today and there’s really no need to block out the air flow in here and – God, it’s way too hot in here –

“If anything, Pegs, he’s looking at you,” Tony tried to dissuade and distract, turning the charm on her even if it was for naught – Peggy knew all his tricks.

“Beautiful as English is,” Hope interjected dryly, “I don’t think she has the equipment Barnes is interested in.”

“Nor the major,” Peggy chimed. “Steve told me that James has always been fascinated by the future, and who else to be utterly entrapped with than the man who’s currently embodying it?”

“Though, it certainly hasn’t stopped him from competing with you for the title,” Hope continued wickedly, “Good thing you live for the competition.” And that was the worst thing really – when the two of them double teamed him – Tony was utterly hopeless against one, but _together?_ All they were missing was Pepper, and truly then: An unstoppable force, an evil unmatched.

Coincidently, with regards to James, three strikes and Tony was _out._

Looks to die for, a brain to weep over and a competitive streak arguably as thick as James’ glorious thighs in those jeans, and the complicatedly beautiful formula he used to answer that nearly impossible suspension equation? He was an unstoppable force, an evil unmatched.

“Just blow him already.”

“ _Rhodey,”_ Tony gasped, only partially scandalized. “Was it not you who declared him to be, and I quote ‘a rogue of total dastardliness, a rakish swine who would steal my virtue and break my fragile heart’?”

“None of those words have ever come out of my mouth,” his best friend deadpanned, skilled in suppressing his smirk to the corners of his lips, though not for long as he shook his head and decided, “I’m just saying, there’s no harm in taking him up on it.”

“Except for the whole possibly falling in love shtick,” he grumbled, looking more determinedly away from the object of his (numerous) frustrations.

“Oh, so we’re still pretending that’s a possible outcome?”  And Tony knew Hope didn’t mean to be cruel, but he winced all the same, the severe expression smoothening with a touch of her hand over his. “You can let him down easy, I’m sure.”

“What?”

When he met her eyes, he was taken aback at the teasing in her expression that went through an interesting metamorphosis of concerned, then surprised and then downright angry. “You didn’t think I meant – Tony, I thought you just weren’t interested in _him_. I didn’t mean – why would you even take it like that?”

At Rhodey’s side, Peggy sounded just as furious, “Anthony Edward Stark, you did not just imply that falling in love with you would be impossible.”

“Of course, not.” _Absolutely._ “I’m just saying, have you _seen_ that man?”

His self-deprecation fell flat.

 “Listen here, you gremlin,” Rhodey began lowly, tone vaguely threatening.  “I’ll be the first to admit that I’m overprotective as hell over you. You’re my brother, and I’ll be damned if I let some punkass dipshit pull you for an idiot. Do you really think I’d encourage this if I thought Barnes wasn’t going to treat you right?

That idiot solved those concussion-inducing equations just to get you to talk to him. He _accidentally always_ brings way too much food for lunch when you work in the same lab. He fucking princess-carried your ass during that fire in the ‘shop two weeks ago. He called _me_ when you were being a stubborn fuck and refused to go home after a fifty-hour _creator_ binge. Not to mention that shit during Jarvis’ anniversary that had the dude _freaked_ that you were suicidal, and he _refused_ to leave you alone until Peggy flew back from good ole England to keep an eye on you. And don’t even get me started on the shit he pulled with Howard the day of the Shield Expo after he heard about your old man laying it on you.”

Before Tony could even open his mouth to ask how – _how_ –

Rhodey continued, more irate, “I’ve had to deal with you two idiots dancing around each other for months. Every so-called accidental touch between the two of you has everyone in the immediate vicinity worried that either of you will reach over and take one another right there – and trust me, _everyone’s got a safe word for when that ever happens._

Every time you two even have a conversation, horny fuckers like Justin Hammer have to wack one out immediately after because god knows how much eroticism is involved in the goddamn _voice_ thing the two of you apparently do when you’re together. Not to mention, _the eye-fucking_ , Mother Mary and Joseph, the sexual tension is enough to _make me pregnant_.”  

Hope snickered while seated in front of Rhodey, Peggy, patted his hand in commiserating comfort, before he concluded, “That motherfucker wants to bang you, and your heart, so do something about it.”

And, like a switch had been flicked – he did.

It was a bit of a blur how it happened, to be honest.

One minute he was pushing out of his chair with the weirdly supportive claps on the back from his friends as Tony made to approach James, the next minute, they were in what Tony was sure was an empty classroom.

James, despite being at least a head taller, was more than willing to bend a little to accommodate Tony as he licked into his mouth, gasping a little at the cool peppermint that tingled on his tongue, and the equally cold prosthetic James sported. The contrast a delicious balm to his heated skin as James massaged the nape of his neck and tugging _just so_  on his hair until Tony was so hard, even the barest brush of friction against his dick sent him keening.

Between one breath and the next, James’ whispered his name, all gravel-rough and wanting; doing downright _filthynogoodthings_ as he palmed Tony’s ass. Before, in a flash, James lifted him effortlessly onto a desk, knocking things out of the way as he crawled on after him, latching back onto his lips like he didn’t know where else to put them if not there.

His thighs on Tony’s was a delicious weight, the firm line of muscle moved in achingly perfect friction through their clothes, with James’ hand to further the torture between them as he took them both and tugged so breathlessly slow and tight that Tony could have creamed his pants right there.

Still mostly clothed and –

Suddenly a beam of light cut through the darkened room like a knife, showing off the beige walls filled with tacky frames of certificates and year-end faculty portraits and –

Wait – this was –

“Motherfucker!”

Fury’s office.

Goddamn it.

Tony was an idiot.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know where this came from, I hope you guys liked it anyway.
> 
> [Click here if you want to find out more about my work](https://everything-withered.tumblr.com/)


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